Spanish authorities have arrested a Panamanian woman who arrived at Barcelona airport with 1.38kg of cocaine concealed in her breast implants.

The interior ministry said on Wednesday border police had noticed fresh scars and blood-stained gauze on the woman's chest and pale patches beneath her skin. The woman said she had recently had breast implant surgery.

Officers were suspicious and sent her to a local hospital where the implants were removed and found to contain cocaine, the ministry added.

Well, there ya go. I think I've heard everything but apparently I was wrong. Really? In breast implants?

The idea that officials would take the woman to a hospital to take out her breast implants is also rather horrific in my POV. XD How many women did they drag off to undo that procedure to have such a weighty decision made by border police?

I'm just totally creeped out by the implication of ANYONE taking off with me to have a force surgery that wasn't necessary...

Chances are very likely, being that she's from Colombia, that her family was threatened or held hostage or some equally vile threat was made upon her loved ones in order for her to go through with this. Or she herself was kidnapped and drugged and surgered. Or she's hooked on drugs herself. Or some combination of the above.

I understand the discomfort at the idea of being taken away to have surgery performed. But I think it was the more humane thing to do. Their other option would have been to turn her away, send her back, and let her face the people who did this to her in the first place.

And I do think their suspicions were reasonable if it appeared she had a really bad boob job to the point it was bleeding out right then. That's horrible work. Something isn't right. In a worst cast scenario for the cops, the woman's health was endangered by a bad boob job. In a best case scenario, they catch a crook.

And I do think their suspicions were reasonable if it appeared she had a really bad boob job to the point it was bleeding out right then.

I think they should have much more than mere suspicions to haul her off as it's clear they weren't actually worried about her health. Though, that could just be the author of article that is implying that.

Yeah, gotta wonder as well what it was about recent breast implant surgery that made the officers so suspicious (granted I don't know anything about breast implant surgery so I don't know whether the blood-stained gauze and "pale patches under her skin" are normal just after a surgery or what) that they had to actually take her to a hospital and un-do the surgery... How on earth does someone even make that call?

(Also, just a head's up OP, there actually is visible blood on the implant bags in the photo at the article.)

I;m thinking it was the recentness. Breast augmentation is surgery after all, and requires some recovery time before you resume your normal activities. Taking a transatlantic trip while the incisions are still bleeding after elective surgery is going to raise suspicion. Most people would schedule things differently.

It was most certainly the recentness in my mind. Watching my mom go through a mastectomy first and reconstruction afterward, the healing process takes a few weeks for both, and likely the woman was in a fuck ton of PAIN too due to the surgery (and the likely shady conditions in which she got it) and then getting punted onto that transatlantic trip.

I did wonder about tagging it 'body modification' but was worried about being seen to equate a women most likely not having a choice about having her body exploited to smuggle drugs, with women who choose to modify their bodies...

Something about this is horrifying to me and I'm not sure what part it is. Maybe it is because I know most drug runners like this aren't doing it because they want to, but because they have little other options by the way of making a decent living. Maybe it's just that I'm kind of triggered by drug topics in general. :|

This. I really can't imagine this woman doing this and actually consenting - it's much more likely she's either an addict who is in debt, or they are somehow blackmailing her or holding a family member for ransom.

The idea that this poor women, in some kind of either physical or mental dire straits, was sliced open so she could have *coke* shoved into her breasts just makes me ill.

And rather homicidal toward the fucking *men* who would so blithely mutilate her for their own gain.

Oh my god, how in sam hill did she even move without screaming?? I watched a housemate recover from her breast augmentation, and.... god, it was the most awful thing to see the toughest, strongest girl I knew practically curled up in a ball in agony, no matter how many painkillers she took.

Also, given that (admittedly anedotal) experience, I was under the impression one needed a bag for uhm... fluid drainage, not to mention that it is nearly impossible to go to the bathroom or get seated/up from a seat without help.

I have to wonder about the circumstances as to how she got into this. Was she a willing participant bargaining that agony to get on a flight, or was it something even worse?

This is so horrifying. Like, all of it. First just the thought of having things put in and out of one's body surgically like it's a purse you can just zip and unzip over and over adding and removing items. And then the fact that these weren't things actually made for and safe for being in one's body. Then realizing that the conditions for the illegal surgeries were probably not the best or safest. And then that this most likely was not her idea but something she was forced into doing. Every part of this is just horrifying.

I get that technically she broke the law but when I first read about this the only thing i could think of was that she was a drug mule and now a victim is in jail. I really hope they follow up any leads they can get from her to arrest the actual people responsible.

Her life must have taken some horrible, dark turn if she would allow someone to cut her body open to stash cocaine in her breasts and then turn around and get cut open again to remove the bags. I hope the people who came up with this plan and likely coerced her into doing it are hunted down.

People seem a little bit confused - the officials didn't just haul her to the hospital for just having recently done implants. Breast implants and ass implants are extremely common in Colombia anyway. I'm guessing no one's been questioned before.

Basically, they profile passengers coming off of "high risk" flights. A lot of cocaine comes from Colombia so a Bogota-->Barcelona would be categorized as "high risk" for drug trafficking.

I know in at least some countries, (and even the US) they have official interviews waiting outside of these flights and they pull aside "suspicious" people for simple questioning. As a single black traveler, I get singled out often. Last time it was from a Bangkok ---> Hong Kong flight.

They ask you simple initial questions as you get off, such as your origin, destination, and purpose for traveling. They'll check your itinerary and passbook for appropriate visas. If your answers aren't suspicious, they let you go.

If they are suspicious, like vague answers for purpose of traveling, they might take you off for more questioning. They'll ask you for more details like which hotel you'll be staying in, who's paying for it, whether you have money, etc. A suspicious person might be like, "uhh my friend's picking me up from the airport and will drop me off at a hotel, I don't know which one, yes, I'm here in Barcelona with $US 100 for a week, no credit cards or bank account, but here's my friend's phone number!"

Even then, airport officials will simply call the phone number, introduce themselves as officers, and whoever answers will quickly deny knowing the person. Then the real suspicion starts, probably with a luggage search and an x-ray.